Multifunctional conductive hyaluronic acid hydrogels for wound care and skin regeneration

Abstract

Although the main function of skin is to act as a protective barrier against external factors, it is indeed an extremely vulnerable tissue. Skincare, regardless of the wound type, requires effective treatments to prevent bacterial infection and local inflammation. The complex biological roles displayed by hyaluronic acid (HA) during the wound healing process have made this multifaceted polysaccharide an alternative biomaterial to prepare wound dressings. Therefore, herein, we present the most advanced research undertaken to engineer conductive and interactive hydrogels based on HA as wound dressings that enhance skin tissue regeneration either through electrical stimulation (ES) or by displaying multifunctional performance. First, we briefly introduce to the reader the effect of ES on promoting wound healing and why HA has become a vogue as a wound healing agent. Then, a selection of systems, chosen according to their multifunctional relevance, is presented. Special care has been taken to highlight those recently reported works (mainly from the last 3 years) with enhanced scalability and biomimicry. By doing that, we have turned a critical eye on the field considering what major challenges must be overcome for these systems to have real commercial, clinical, or other translational impact.